Friday, 20 March 2015

The
following is the translation of the statement by the Free Union of Workers of
Iran (Ettehadieh Azad e Kargaran e Iran)
following the sentencing of Jafar Azimzadeh, the President of the Free Union,
for his trade union activities. Our campaign condemns this blatant attack by
the government in Iran on the Free Union and worker activists, and demands the
immediate revoking of these sentences, and the release from prison of all worker
activists currently in prison for defending workers’ rights. We call on all
trade unions and human rights organisations around the world to condemn this
latest attack on the Free Union and Jafar Azimzadeh and to demand an immediate end
to the persecution of workers and labour activists in Iran.

Six years in prison and a two-year ban on trade union activity for Jafar Azimzadeh

Statement by the Free Union of Workers of Iran

Jafar Azimzadeh, the President
of the Free Union of Workers of Iran, and one of the coordinators of the
40,000-signature minim-pay rise campaign, has been sentenced by Branch 15 of
the Revolution Court to a total of six years in prison: five years on the
charge of gathering and collusion with intent to act against national security
and to disturb the public peace, according to Article 610 of the Islamic Penal
Code, and one year in prison on the charge of propaganda against the Islamic
Republic, according to Article 500 of the Islamic Penal Code. He has also been banned
for two years from membership of political parties and groups and of activity
on the cyberspace and the media on the charge of illegal activities, according
to Article 23 of the Islamic Penal Code.

The
five-page ruling by Branch 15 of the Revolution Court is based on the following
instances: the building of the Free Union of Workers of Iran, the National
Union of Unemployed Workers and the Committee to Follow Up the Formation of
Free Labour Organisations; taking part in the International Workers’ Day rally
in Laleh Park in 2009, leading workers in the 2005 protests, organising,
planning and managing workers’ gatherings under the current government and
threatening to call rallies and strikes in March 2013, collecting 40,000
workers’ signatures for a petition and leading the rallies outside the National
Assembly and the Labour Ministry, threatening the Labour Ministry in a letter to
the Labour Minister to hold a rally on this year’s International Workers’ Day outside
the Labour Ministry in protest at the announced [level of the] minimum wage,
lodging a complaint, on behalf of 1,000 workers, against Saeed Mortazavi and
others who have plundered the Social Welfare Fund to the tune of 3,000 billion
Toman, protest at even worse anti-labour amendments in the Labour Law, meeting
with other independent workers’ organisations, such as the Syndicate of Workers
of Tehran and Suburbs United Bus Company, Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Workers Union, the
Co-ordinating Committee to Form Free Labour Organisations, the Committee to
Follow Up the Formation of Free Labour Organisations and giving interviews to
the website of the Free Union of Workers of Iran and a number of international
news media.

In
the court ruling the attempt has been made to link Jafar Azimzadeh to a left
organisation in the beginning of the 1979 revolution, when he was 12 to 13
years old, stating that “he was born with Marxist views”, so as to portray all
of his legal and legitimate activities as a political action against the system,
and thus as a basis for his prosecution.

This
attempt by the intelligence and judicial officers of Branch 15 of the
Revolution Court has been made at a time when there is not even a shred of
evidence in his file or in the court ruling that Jafar Azimzadeh has acted
against national security in the guise of trade union activity. According to
the documents in his file, the interrogations and the instances cited in the
court ruling, all that has led to the detention and trial of Jafar Azimzadeh and
the six-year sentence against him is nothing but defending the right to life of
workers in Iran and the right of millions of working-class families to a human existence.

The handing
of such a sentence against Jafar Azimzadeh and the continuation of the policy
of detaining members of independent workers’ organisations, such as Koorosh
Bakhshandeh and other members of the committee, the mass trial of 28 workers of
Chador Malou mine, the detention of Milad Darvish in the teachers’ legitimate
protest in front of the National Assembly, the flogging sentences against Raazi
Petrochemical workers, the collaboration of the Labour Ministry with the
employers of Zagros Steel to lay off the workers of the company, the detention
of the workers of Esfahan Polyacryl Company, the detention and threatening of
the workers of Loushan Cement, the disgusting puppetry by the hired workers’
representatives in the Supreme Council of Labour, and the conniving by the [government’s]
Labour House to impose a disgraceful pay on the working class in Iran, the
detention of Jamil Mohammadi and the handing of a three and a half year
sentence against him, the detention of Shapour Ehsanirad, Parvin Mohammadi and
Tehran bus workers on May Day, the re-sentencing of jailed worker Behnam Ebrahimzadeh
to a further nine and a half years in prison, harassment of labour activist
Mohammad Jarahi in the central prison of Tabriz, the appointment of one of the
highest ranking intelligence officers to the post of Labour Minister, and the
full deployment of intelligence and security personnel in this ministry, etc.,
these actions mean nothing other than forcing the workers to yield to absolute
slavery and declaration of an open war on the life and livelihood of the
working class in Iran by the so-called ‘prudence and hope’ government of themaraudingcapitalists.

Undoubtedly,
just as the repressions so far by the rulers against workers’ leaders,
representatives and activists have failed to impede the struggle of the workers
in Iran for a human life, as witnessed in the ongoing protests and strikes by
thousands of workers and teachers around the country, so the sentences against
Jafar Azimzadeh and Jamil Mohammadi will not dent the resolve and determination
of workers and members of the Free Union of Workers in their defence of the right
to life and livelihood of workers.

The
Free Union of Workers of Iran, while condemning the six-year prison sentence
and the two-year ban on activity against Jafar Azimzadeh, declares that it will
not remain silent on such vicious sentences against Jafar Azimzadeh and Jamil
Mohammadi, and will protest against these sentences both inside Iran and by
taking this case to the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Our Union will
not let these two staunch labour activists, who are among the distinguished
leaders of the Free Union of Workers and the workers’ movement in Iran, to be
sacrificed to the repressive interests of a pillaging minority, who by imposing
extreme poverty on millions of working-class families see no other tasks for
themselves in running the country than ripping off workers of their meagre
earnings.

Jafar
Azimzadeh and Jamil Mohammadi have not committed any other crime than round-the-clock
struggle to improve the condition of workers, and curb the raids on workers’ bare
tables by the plunderers, through such campaigns as the 40,000-signature
petition and legal protests for a rise in the minimum wage and by launching complaints
against those who have ripped workers off. The conviction of these two
activists and the passing of the six-year sentence against Jafar Azimzadeh in
the space of only 13 days is happening at a time when no action has been taken
after one year in response to the complaint by Jafar Azimzadeh, Jamil Mohammadi
and their colleagues, on behalf of 1,000 workers, against Saeed Mortazavi and others
who have ransacked workers’ savings in the Social Welfare Fund, leaving them to
continue to live in their billion-Toman homes on the spoils they have pocketed.

There
is no doubt that taking such brutal measures against workers who have
complained against those who have robbed them of their earnings, and who are
demanding an end to the economic oppression against millions of working-class
families, will not only not force us workers to surrender to the existing
oppressive situation, but will add to the hatred and disgust of the workers and
people of Iran towards the current situation.